[7] e.g. The cut of a preacher preceded by his little crucifer in the 'Doctrina delle Vita Monastica' of Lorenzo Quistiniano (Venice, c. 1495) to a picture by Gentile Bellini in the church of S. Maria del Orto; the cut of S. Thomas in the 'Epistole et Evangeli' of 1495 to the picture by Verrocchio in Or S. Michele, and that of the beheading of S. John from a Pollaiuolo in the Baptistery at Florence. The case of the illustrations to the 1467 'Meditationes' of Turrecremata, which are professedly copied from the frescoes in the church of S. Maria di Minerva at Rome, is an interesting example of this copying, the excellence of the original designs sometimes triumphing over the rudeness of the engraving. Unluckily the frescoes themselves have perished.
[8] The Venetian origin of this cut is made almost certain by the character of its border. In style and touch (cleverly as the reproduction here given has been made from the thickly-painted original, the lines are necessarily thickened) the design is closely akin to the borders in the 'Omelie et Sermones' of S. Bernard (1491), and the 'Dialogo de la Seraphica Virgine S. Caterina' (1494), while in the border and woodcut initials of the 'Supplementum Chronicarum' of 1492 we get both the bull's skull and the dolphin's, and in the 'Rudimenta Grammatices' of Donatus 1493, a top border to the first page which resembles the lower border in our cut. There is no suggestion of copying here, but a series of designs probably all by the same artist which begin with this border to the 'Arte' in 1490 and can be traced for several years, always at Venice.
[9] Reprinted from the King's College School Magazine by leave of the editor.
[10] In this very medieval Latin the master is always addressed as 'vos,' never as 'tu,' the use of the singular, except to inferiors or as a mark of affection, being regarded as an insult.
[11] Read before the Bibliographical Society, April 1896.
[12] An important extension to the subject, but one which I have not the knowledge to deal with, would treat of the Service-books prepared especially for the English market in Flanders and the north of France during the two centuries preceding the invention of printing. These are often claimed as of English origin, owing to their having English saints in their calendars, but their real provenance is indisputable.
[13] Reprinted, by leave of Messrs. Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner and Co. from 'Bibliographica,' vol. iii. (1896).
[14] Hopyl's initials are an inch and a half square on a dotted background. They were evidently designed specially for a Missal, the pictures being appropriate to the services to which the initials belong. They do not make up a complete alphabet, but of several letters there are two or three variants, e.g. for R there are pictures of Death, of the Annunciation, and of the Resurrection; for S, of SS. Cosmo and Damian, of S. Martin and the Beggar, and of the Blessed Virgin.
[15] Since this paper was in type I have been shown an earlier example of this letter in a book printed by R. Wolfe in 1563.
[16] From the introduction to the 'English Bookman's Library,' by leave of Messrs. Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner and Co.